Häppchen aus Berlin und anderswo

Schokolade

this one goes out to my new friend gregorio. he is the thinnest boy i’ve ever met and i love the way he devours tons of my chocolate balls. the recipe is so easy! you will be able to produce them by yourself and make your mother happy (remember mother’s day is approaching fast and merciless)

i use 400 g of milk chocolate couverture wich is specially for coating. preferably organic from vivani or alike. to melt the chocolate properly cut it roughly into pieces and then use the double-boiler method. this sounds more complicated than it is, really! place the chocolate pieces in a clean stainless-steel bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of very hot (not boiling) water. you do not want the bottom of the bowl to come directly in contact with the water below, because it will get too hot and the chocolate can burn. as the chocolate begins to melt, stir it with a heat-resistant spoon, working the chocolate from the sides of the bowl into the center mass. when the chocolate pieces are almost entirely molten, remove the bowl from the heat, stir, and let the remaining chocolate melt by the heat of the larger mass.

now comes the part of the recipe you must hide from the larger part of your female acquaintance including your mother ( of course it’s not nice to have secrets from your mother, but this one is allowed). into the warm chocolate mass you stir 200 g of butter (cut into pieces). this has to be done very thoroughly, because you don’t want to have butter pieces in the chocolate balls or your secret will be found out very easily! you’ll notice that the mass get’s thicker as it get’s colder. now to the fun part. into this chocolate mass you can mix every kind of nut pieces you like. i took 200 g of roughly cut almonds (not even peeled) and perfumed everything with finely grinded tonka beans. this beans are not easily found in supermarkets so you can use good vanilla sugar instead. or cinnamon. or pepper. or chili (be careful) feel free! let the chocolate mass cool down until thick but not completely hard. with a small spoon or even better a melon baller scoop the cold chocolate mixture and form balls with the palms of your hands. they don’t have to be perfect (mine weren’t). if you want you can roll them into cocoa powder (i didn’t). put them into an airtight container and separate the layers with baking sheet. freeze them. before serving remove them from the freezer at least 15 minutes before serving or you’ll risk your teeth.